Today, NALC President Brian L. Renfroe testified before the House Subcommittee on Government Operations at a hearing on the future of the Postal Service.
President Renfroe began his opening remarks on a solemn note, honoring Jacob Taylor, a letter carrier from Lone Star Branch 132 in Dallas, TX, who died on the job last week. Renfroe’s testimony emphasized the numerous job hazards letter carriers face, including the strenuous nature of extreme heat and crime, explaining that letter carriers must be protected in all circumstances.
“If Congress wants to help the Postal Service, I urge you to do everything possible to protect letter carriers and all postal employees, implement necessary financial changes, and guarantee the Postal Service remains an independent, non-taxpayer-funded public service it has been for the last 55 years,” Renfroe said. “If the American people’s mail and packages are to be protected, the people who deliver them must first be better protected,” he added.
With the hearing focused on the future of the Postal Service, Renfroe emphasized the critical need for Congress and the administration to address Postal Service finances, specifically calling for proper calculation of the Postal Service’s pension liabilities and allowing USPS to invest its retiree health benefit funds more responsibly.
With regard to the Delivering for America plan, Renfroe said that “modernization is long overdue. One of the primary challenges of such a transformation is maintaining and improving service as a massive network is modified.”
The subcommittee included witnesses Jim Cochrane, CEO of the Package Shippers Association; Elena Spatoulas Patel, Assistant Professor at the University of Utah’s Marriner S. Eccles Institute for Economics and Quantitative Analysis; Mike Plunkett, CEO and President of the Association for Postal Commerce; Thomas Schatz, President of Citizens Against Government Waste; and Paul Steidler, Senior Fellow at the Lexington Institute.
These stakeholders’ interests align more with private shippers, ultimately motivated by profit.
“When Congress seeks to make changes or understand the operations of the Postal Service, I urge you to come to us – the people who work within the system every day and are invested in the service we provide to the American people,” Renfroe said.
The hearing was particularly relevant as the incoming postmaster general, David Steiner, is set to lead the agency in a few weeks. His leadership comes with many uncertainties.
“While NALC has reservations about the USPS Board of Governors’ selection for postmaster general, guaranteeing that the Postal Service remains an independent, non-taxpayer-funded, non-partisan agency is key. We fulfill a universal service obligation that no other private shipper does, could, or would fulfill.”
Overall, questions focused on the Delivering for America plan, potential impacts of privatization, cost savings, upholding the universal service obligation, the structure of the Postal Service’s leadership, and more.
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) asked Renfroe why a stable Postal Service workforce is important. He emphasized that the “stability of the workforce has gone a long way to building the trust that Americans have in letter carriers and the Postal Service.”
Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) began his questioning by thanking Branch 1091 letter carriers in his district. He then pointed out the difference between private businesses and public services and asked Renfroe how postal privatization could affect customers. Renfroe explained that any effort to privatize would “erode the universal service obligation” Americans depend on.
In his closing remarks, Chairman Pete Sessions (R-TX) thanked postal workers for their contributions and acknowledged the thousands of postal workers working in extreme temperatures as a heat wave sweeps part of the country.
President Renfroe’s full testimony is available here.
